COSTUME TYPES OF HUMOUR Humour 1 Parody Where

COSTUME

TYPES OF HUMOUR

Humour • 1. Parody – Where a serious story / myth / character is ‘taken off’, or made fun of. • 2. Satire – Where humour is used to make a political or social point. Aristophanes used satire to point out to Athenians where he thought their values where wrong, or where politicians like Cleon were leading them astray.

Humour • 3. Situational Comedy / Farce – Aristophanes uses ridiculous situations to poke fun and society. In the first part of the Wasps, this is through the ridiculous scenario of an old man addicted to jury duty. • 4. Slapstick – This is Aristophanes most basic form of humour. It is straight physical comedy.

Humour • 5. Scatological and Sexual Humour – The theatre provided an escape from the conventions of society, including politeness and appropriateness. Aristophanes played up to this by including all sorts of sexual innuendo (suggestive play on words) and coarse language and actions.

Humour • 6. Verbal Humour – This is the most common form of humour in Aristophanes’ plays. Puns / plays on words are scattered throughout the text. • 7. Bathos – Bathos is when a scene or speech has a sudden change of mood from serious to silly. In Aristophanes, bathos was frequently also satirical, or scatological.